Saturday, May 28, 2016

Fundamental Changes in Warfare

4 comments:

I think we are in this position because Obongo deliberately put us here, as part of the leftist plan to bring this country down. Shrillery will not put things aright, but there is a possibility that Trump just might. In any case, some one needs to get on the stick, and get us ready to deal with these "adversaries", fucked up economy and divided nation and all. Otherwise we will wind up with millions MORE people here that don't belong here, and they'll be speaking Russian, or Chinese. We could start by having every single moslem here leaving, and at the same time, all the other illegals. Internal security is zippo right now, with these fifth columnists all over the place. Do that, and embark on a smart plan to bring our Armed Forces up to better than snuff regarding the new situation as it is. We are setting ourselves up, as it is, for a new Pearl Harbor, only it ain't going to be way out there in the Pacific, it'll be in every hometown, on Main Street, right outside our living rooms, and there ain't going to be no recovery this time. Remember, prior to our being thrust into World War II, very few people saw the POSSIBILITY of a devastating first attack by the Japs, even though is was plain as day. These threats are screaming in our faces, but most in this country are occupied with self. The threats we face are nation ending horrors, like a Japanese fleet of air craft carriers waiting in the ocean off of Hawaii. They are real, they are VERY credible, they are going to proceed, and we have the possibility of heading them off, IF we get with the program.

The deadly-but-forgotten government gun-running scandal known as “Fast and Furious” has lain dormant for years, thanks to White House stonewalling and media compliance. But newly uncovered emails have reopened the case, exposing the anatomy of a coverup by an administration that promised to be the most transparent in history.

One problem the old USSR had to deal with is that only 40% of their conscripts had any fluency in Russian. I'm wondering if the pared down Russian Federation has a similar problem and if so to what degree.

The mindset of the article strikes me as deeply misguided, not least in the implicit assertion that some combination of increased professionalism in certain national military forces and technological advances becoming more common in civilian hands constitute "Fundamental Changes in Warfare".

China and Russia, after a long period in which actual use of conventional forces to accomplish their national aims was in relative eclipse, are modernizing and upgrading their actual capabilities sufficiently to address potential conflict scenarios. The only surprising thing here is that some nations still aren't investing in real military capabilities commensurate with their national resources.

As for previously cutting edge technology becoming widely available, when in living memory has this not been an ongoing process?

On the subject of countering cyberwarfare capabilities, I find the article singularly obtuse. Creating information systems capable of withstanding external attack, whether from mere criminals or adversary nations, is a task which should be left to the free-market, centralizing or attempting to "coordinate" such efforts is exactly the wrong response. Even worse is the implicit suggestion that this technology should be controlled, defenses against information attack must be allowed to proliferate both in order to ensure the security of economically vital private enterprises as well as to allow the technology to evolve to become really effective against attackers. The idea of creating a military authority over such systems is basically like suggesting that because steel is a vital national resource for military use, all production and technical innovation of steel must be placed under strict military control. I can think of no better way to ensure economic stagnation or outright destruction of a militarily vital major industry...though our current economic policies don't seem terribly far removed.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.